Tuesday, March 23, 2010

The Time Traveller's Wife

Read and forgotten some books along the way since January. Can barely recall the titles now. One of them was corks and forks- as the title suggests, it's a book about wines and food. Great if you love wine, otherwise it will probably bore you to tears. I quite like that little anecdote about Julia Child too and generally, how the author seemed to be able to be social with just about anyone in the world.

I won't do a review on that book. What I wanna review about was The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (what a name!).



To be perfectly honest, I almost dropped this book. I seldom give books up halfway in case they might turn out to be interesting in the end. And am I glad I pressed on for this book.

The book started out rather dry and confusing, with Henry jumping from one time space to another. It got a bit hard to keep track who he really was at that time (a 32 Henry DeTamble, a 6 year old Henry? Has he known the female lead already, or has he not?). But once you get the feel of the book, you find it rather bittersweet and touching. You can almost feel the longing of The Time Traveller's Wife, which in this case, was Clare Abshire. I love the ending. A sorta resurrection of Henry after YEARS of waiting, for Clare. The story is written such that you can't help but wonder whether a love as strong and as fascinating as theirs, truly does exist on earth. And if it does, you wish with all your heart that it happens to you.

Would you wait almost 40 years to see someone you loved again? Or would you have moved on? When Clare met Henry again, after he died at the age of 46 (i think), she was already in her 80s and had been waiting for that moment for a good half of her life. Just because Henry had told her that he had seen it happen (he'd travelled to the future).

All in all, a worthwhile read if you can get past the initial confusion.